The Legacy Issue

Accidents Still Happen: Revisiting “Degrassi’s” Infamous Abortion Episode

screenshot of Amanda Arcuri as Lola in “Degrassi: Next Class” (2017), a white girl with short blue hair, sitting in front of a camera, wearing a pink sweater with various patches, two of which say “No… Yes!!” and “Summer Breeze.”
by Marina Watanabe
June 11, 2021 at 10:57am
The N refused to air the episode for several years.
cropping of a black and white portrait sketch of a Black woman with short hair, her features are more detailed in the center of her face, while the top of her hair, chin, and neck are lightly outlined

Let Us Live: What Does Loving Black Women Really Look Like?

by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
April 21, 2021 at 11:33am
What would it be like to celebrate Black women, not just as a performance or a trend? Without using them as a mascot for a movement. Without relying on them to save this country. Read more »
an illustration by Tara Anand of a South Asian Gen Z kid holding up their phone and their parent reading a newspaper as they sit next to each other on a couch giving each other the side-eye while the world burns outside the window behind them.

Boomer to Zoomer: Grim Generational Relations Aren’t An Accident

by Mary Retta
March 22, 2021 at 1:29pm
There is only one winner in a generation war, and it’s not millennials or boomers or Gen Z—it’s capitalism. Read more »
a purple, pink, and yellow mixed-media portrait of Queen Latifah, a fat Black woman, with painted strokes and symbols featuring a black and white photo by Al Pereira. She wears a tall weaved headdress, matching jacket, and her finger by her mouth

Her House: Queen Latifah Recreated the Rom-Com in Her Image

by Cate Young
March 17, 2021 at 9:00am
Queen Latifah’s oeuvre demonstrates that satisfying Black rom-coms for fat women are possible, even if Hollywood is resistant to making them. Read more »
cropping of a grayscale vector illustration of Janet Jackson on a black background. She is posed with an exposed torso, her arms above her head with a silhouette of hands covering her chest. Neon blue, pink, yellow lines outline her arms, waist, and chest

Stripping Point: Nipplegate Exposed Our Deep Fear of Black Women’s Sexuality

by Vanessa Willoughby
March 4, 2021 at 10:37am
Janet Jackson was punished for 9/16 of one second of nudity, while Justin Timberlake rose from her post–Super Bowl ashes. Read more »
a purple and light brown duotone photo of author Deesha Philyaw, a Black woman with long locs, wearing a large hoop earring, and strapless, pleated top, looking at a reflection of herself in the mirror

The Only Gaze Is Ours: Tracing the Evolution of Black Women’s Stories

by Deesha Philyaw
March 3, 2021 at 10:41am
Writing about Black people feels limitless. It feels infinite. Read more »
Naima Coster, a light-skinned woman with short, black hair, and wearing a black t-shirt crosses her arms and smiles as she poses against a colorful wall

“What’s Mine and Yours” Complicates the School Segregation Story

by Evette Dionne
March 2, 2021 at 9:48am
Naima Coster’s prescient novel brings human faces to a broader social issue. Read more »
Portrait of Greisa Martínez Rosas, a Mexican woman with long dark brown curls, wearing a white blazer and smiling

BitchTapes: Immigrant Dreaming

by Greisa Martínez Rosas
February 12, 2021 at 2:50pm
Greisa Martínez Rosas outlines some of the songs that have helped guide her ethos as an organizer and a movement leader. Read more »